Shotlist

Uses the setting of a young child's birthday party to show how Saran Wrap can be used both for food preservation in the refrigerator and freezer and as an element in creative home and party decorations. PORTRAYS CREATIVE & TIME SAVING IDEAS FOR MODERN HOMEMAKING. SHOWS FREEZING, DECORATIVE IDEAS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY & IDEAS FOR PROTECTING SILVER, CHINA, LINEN, SEASONAL CLOTHING & EQUIPMENT USING PLASTIC WRAP. DESIGNED FOR TEACHING.


The Best Made Plans is a treasure house of fifties cliches, not a document
of "real life" during the early Cold War. The wife and mother is field
marshal of her household, administering chores, social activity, and
leisure by command and persuasion. (The unnamed actress who plays her also
appears in Office Courtesy: Meeting the Public, on the Free to Obey disc.)
Steady at her side is her passive, bumbling, whining husband, who wears a
barbecue apron-a given in pop-cultural representations of fifties
suburbia-and obeys her every command, even as family schedules change to
accommodate in-laws. The characters are living in Children's Standard Time,
an eternal suburban present. The adults have little agenda other than to
meet the needs of their children. The daughter is queen of the household;
nothing is permitted to frustrate or disappoint her, and excessive
attention is paid to her birthday whims. Still, Mom manages to get in a
long session with the home economist during which she learns how to wrap
meat for freezing, a crucially important skill in the paranoid fifties.
Lest we forget about Saran Wrap, The Best Made Plans presents it as a
product with nearly infinite uses. The film reaches the height of absurdity
when Mom packs for baby Tommy, stopping just short, it seems, of wrapping
up Tommy himself.

Plastic wrap Packaging Painting Husbands and wives Sex roles Gender roles Girls Daughters Barbecues Barbecue aprons Packaging Freezing Appliances Silverware China Linen Recreation Leisure Homes Houses Food Preparation Plastic Saran Wrap Narratives Men Women Families Children Birthdays Parties Picnics Automobiles Driving Garages Absurdity Humor Suitcases Babies Home Economics Housework Diapers Painting Sex Roles Cooking
<BR>